Severe flooding in Los Alcázares, Torre Pacheco, San Javier and other coastal towns

The worst fears of residents on the coast of the Mar Menor proved well founded on Friday morning as they awoke – those of them who had managed to sleep through the ferocious gota fría storm during the night, at least – to find streets flooded and their towns isolated from each other and the rest of the Region of Murcia.

During the early hours of the morning local report that they were trapped in their houses by the floodwater and were powerless to do anything as they watched their cars being washed away as practically the whole town was submerged in a huge pool of muddy water. Street furniture and paraphernalia from the fair all headed towards the beach and then the Mar Menor, highlighting the fact that the water quality in the lagoon is likely to suffer from the cloudbursts this week.

Much of the rain which reached Los Alcázares fell in Torre Pacheco, which was also cut off as almost all of the roads around the town disappeared under floodwater. Most of the residents were aware of the danger and remained in their homes, but a tractor was called out to rescue two stranded British nationals as they failed to heed the warning issued by the Town Hall in Spanish, English, German, French and other languages.

Neither was the damage limited by any means to Los Alcázares. Streets in the nearby town of San Javier were also under water on Friday morning, as was the case in other localities on the inland shore, while at the southern tip of the Mar Menor 300 millimetres of rain fell in El Algar and people in the La Manga caravanning park, areas of Los Nietos and Bahía Bella were evacuated.

Personnel from the Spanish Government military emergencies unit, the UME and firecrews from Cartagena transferred some residents from the Bahía Bella area, which is the area surrounding the Rambla de El Albujón at the point at which it disgorges into the Mar Menor, to the CAR sports centre in Los Narejos, although many refused to leave their homes in spite of the obvious risk of flooding.

The rainfall also hit La Manga hard as Aemet reported around 200 millimetres in little more than an hour around 4 a.m. Most of the water ran off into the Mar Menor and the Mediterranean, but some formed large pools on the roads and the beaches were certainly a good deal less tempting than is usually the case on Friday!